The All Elite Wrestling Discussion Thread

[Jaysin]

Darby and Joe was a lot of fun. Sting and Darby celebrating was awesome too. Sting looked so genuinely happy for Darby. 

I really dig the new stage and set. I wasn't paying attention, but are there still two entrances? I've always liked the double entrances for some reason. 

I hope Toni being Saraya's partner is a swerve or something. Seemed weird to hold out naming her partner and then it's just someone already on the roster. 

[Eternal Phoenix]

45 minutes ago, Jaysin said:

I really dig the new stage and set. I wasn't paying attention, but are there still two entrances? I've always liked the double entrances for some reason. 

Yes, I noticed during Darby's entrance. they come out from behind one of those side video panels. They're not tunnels anymore. They're disguised.

[Matt_Black]

7 hours ago, Jaysin said:

Darby and Joe was a lot of fun. Sting and Darby celebrating was awesome too. Sting looked so genuinely happy for Darby. 

I really dig the new stage and set. I wasn't paying attention, but are there still two entrances? I've always liked the double entrances for some reason. 

I hope Toni being Saraya's partner is a swerve or something. Seemed weird to hold out naming her partner and then it's just someone already on the roster. 

It also didn't make sense. "Hmm... Who should I choose? The woman who went undefeated in AEW for over a year, carrying the entire division on her shoulders through the pandemic? Or the wrestler who lost her first match after winning the Interim title? The second one. I'm going to go with her."

[Dalton]

3 hours ago, Matt_Black said:

It also didn't make sense. "Hmm... Who should I choose? The woman who went undefeated in AEW for over a year, carrying the entire division on her shoulders through the pandemic? Or the wrestler who lost her first match after winning the Interim title? The second one. I'm going to go with her."

That's the story.

Britt and Jamie said that Saraya doesn't understand what AEW is about. Saraya then chose Toni over the one who carried the division through the pandemic. 

[milamber]

8 hours ago, Dalton said:

That's the story.

Britt and Jamie said that Saraya doesn't understand what AEW is about. Saraya then chose Toni over the one who carried the division through the pandemic. 

 

AEW Outsiders (Saraya, Mone, Storm, Athena, Ruby) vs AEW Homegrown or Originals (Britt, Hayter, Shida, Nyla & Willow) in a Blood & Guts match. Could work if TK spends enough time building up the storyline. Shida could fit on either side as she's an AEW original but made her name in Japan for years first.

Edited January 6, 2023 by milamber

[Matt_Black]

9 hours ago, Dalton said:

That's the story.

Britt and Jamie said that Saraya doesn't understand what AEW is about. Saraya then chose Toni over the one who carried the division through the pandemic. 

Hmmm... Okay, now explain how Skye Blue can get a TBS Title shot despite losing a match last year where the stipulation was that if she lost she would never get a TBS Title shot?

[Dalton]

1 hour ago, Matt_Black said:

Hmmm... Okay, now explain how Skye Blue can get a TBS Title shot despite losing a match last year where the stipulation was that if she lost she would never get a TBS Title shot?

What does that have to do with Britt/Jamie/Saraya/Shida? 

I'm not sure which match you are referring to. AEW tends to stick to stipulations, and that's a big one so I feel like I'd remember, but if you want my opinion on it all, the Jade storyline is awful and should have ended months ago. Red Velvet is turning back and forth more than Big Show and the Baddies as a whole are turning face only to be demolished by their former heel leader. Jade, a genuine future star, is somehow simultaneously winning and winning but also in a holding pattern.

[Matt_Black]

53 minutes ago, Dalton said:

What does that have to do with Britt/Jamie/Saraya/Shida? 

I thought we were talking about confusing booking in the women's division that makes no sense.

Anyway, Skye versus Jade is tonight on Battle Of The Belts; earlier in the year, not too long after the TBS tournament, Skye lost a match on either Dark or Elevation against Jade with that stipulation. 

[Jaysin]

32 minutes ago, Matt_Black said:

I thought we were talking about confusing booking in the women's division that makes no sense.

Anyway, Skye versus Jade is tonight on Battle Of The Belts; earlier in the year, not too long after the TBS tournament, Skye lost a match on either Dark or Elevation against Jade with that stipulation. 

You're misremembering. Jade and Skye had a match on Dark that was a title eliminator match on Dark #125 and a singles match on Rampage #10 and neither had that stipulation. 

[Matt_Black]

35 minutes ago, Jaysin said:

You're misremembering.

No, I'm not. I remember when Jade made that stipulation that they were hampering themselves. I didn't expect them to ignore it, but then Jade storylines ignore a lot of things, like how she and Red Velvet hated each other, but then they formed the Baddies and ignored all of that.

[Jaysin]

1 minute ago, Matt_Black said:

No, I'm not. I remember when Jade made that stipulation that they were hampering themselves. I didn't expect them to ignore it, but then Jade storylines ignore a lot of things, like how she and Red Velvet hated each other, but then they formed the Baddies and ignored all of that.

Then what show did it happen on? I just looked up the episode of Dark that they had a singles match on(125) and there is zero mention of that being a stipulation during the show. All that's said is that if she wins, she gets a shot at Jade for the title and she lost in less than two minutes. 

Unless Skye lost a tag or six woman match with that stipulation, there's no singles match with the stipulation you're thinking of. 

[Dalton]

I'm guessing you are thinking of this TBS Championship Eliminator Match:

Eliminator matches don't carry the stip that one can "never" challenge for the title again; it just means if the challenger wins they receive a title match. This all happened a year ago, so that stip is irrelevant now.

AEW's number one contender tournaments are called Eliminator Tournaments. If someone loses in the tournament, that doesn't mean they can never challenge for the title. 

[Matt_Black]

Jade made the stip on a previous show.

[Mootinie]

On 1/6/2023 at 4:26 AM, Jaysin said:

I hope Toni being Saraya's partner is a swerve or something. Seemed weird to hold out naming her partner and then it's just someone already on the roster. 

I wonder if the plan is Thunder Rosa and always was but they felt like they needed to announce somebody just to stop the Mercedes Moné rumours. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Mootinie

[Matt_Black]

Then why on earth would Britt add fuel to those rumors with her wink wink nudge nudge bit on Wednesday?

[Jaysin]

1 hour ago, Mootinie said:

I wonder if the plan is Thunder Rosa and always was but they felt like they needed to announce somebody just to stop the Mercedes Moné rumours. 

I'd be happy if Rosa never comes back personally. 

[milamber]

Rampage:

- Top Flight vs Danielson & Mox was my MOTN.
- Hangman fired up.
- DMD & Hayter vs The Renegades was solid. I'm glad it wasn't a squash.
- Let them help you Eddie.
- Vance vs Sonico was an OK squash. Not the mask!
- Bennett vs Darby (c) was great.

BOTB:

- Jarrett & Lethal vs Acclaimed (c) was good. Should have been Tornado Tag, though.
- Hobbs for next TNT Champion.
- Skye vs Jade (c) was good.
- Women's street fight should be fun.
- Kip vs Cassidy (c) was my MOTN.

I wasn't hyped about these shows but they were entertaining.

Edited January 8, 2023 by milamber

[Matt_Black]

The ripping the mask off bit got old the first 50 times AEW did it. It is super played out now.

[CQI13]

6 hours ago, Mootinie said:

I wonder if the plan is Thunder Rosa and always was but they felt like they needed to announce somebody just to stop the Mercedes Moné rumours. 

But if Thunder Rosa is still an option (meaning Toni gets replaced), how does that stop fans from thinking Sasha will still show up? And if it doesn't, why not just go with the actual plan to begin with?

[Mootinie]

13 hours ago, Matt_Black said:

Then why on earth would Britt add fuel to those rumors with her wink wink nudge nudge bit on Wednesday?

Because wrestlers are always working. Remember when rumours suggested Matt Hardy was going to be the exalted one so he tweeted some wink wink nudge nudge stuff. And then it was revealed to be Brodie Lee. You just know they all had a laugh at the number of "insiders" who had reported it was going to be Matt Hardy. They get off on this stuff, they love doing it. Matt said that Brodie Lee messaged him personally to thank him for promoting the angle and doing the misdirect. "Oh fans think Mercedes is going to show up, I'm going to call myself The Boss and see how many marks I've worked on Twitter hehe" they love it.

But I'm reasonably confident that Mercedes isn't showing up on January 11th because, if she does, they have promoted her debut appearance in the stupidest, most ass backwards way imaginable.

7 hours ago, CQI13 said:

But if Thunder Rosa is still an option (meaning Toni gets replaced), how does that stop fans from thinking Sasha will still show up? And if it doesn't, why not just go with the actual plan to begin with?

If you do a mystery partner and it isn't Mercedes, that's a let down.

But if you announce somebody and it still isn't Mercedes, that's okay. You didn't announce her, you announced Toni, you're just presenting what you have promoted.

Imagine if instead of a "HALL OF FAME LEVEL TALENT", AEW maybe should have announced that Christian was going to be at Revolution 2021. It doesn't quite have the same effect but considering fans expected Brock Lesnar and got Christian, it was a disappointment purely by association.

Who even knows what the actual plan was with this whole mystery partner deal? If I'm lead to believe that Mercedes was in but kiboshed the deal after the recent Vince news, I wouldn't be surprised. Now might not be the best time to commit yourself to a long-term deal outside of WWE if you genuinely earnestly want to still work there. Maybe Mercedes will do this NJPW stuff, scratch that whole Joshi itch she has and then go back to the Fed? Doubly, I wouldn't be surprised if NJPW have told AEW that Mercedes Moné's first post-WWE match is their show in February and AEW are not allowed to have her wrestle until after Battle at the Valley. In which case, they needed to announce a wrestler to wrestle the match because Mercedes is off the table in that respect. 

Maybe the original plan was Thunder Rosa's return but they saw all the fans getting worked up about it being Mercedes and decided they needed to quieten that baseless speculation to avoid a disappointing return for their former World Champion? Who knows? But we're all talking about it so, clearly, the mystery has been a relatively effective promotional vehicle.

[CQI13]

2 hours ago, Mootinie said:

Because wrestlers are always working. Remember when rumours suggested Matt Hardy was going to be the exalted one so he tweeted some wink wink nudge nudge stuff. And then it was revealed to be Brodie Lee. You just know they all had a laugh at the number of "insiders" who had reported it was going to be Matt Hardy. They get off on this stuff, they love doing it. Matt said that Brodie Lee messaged him personally to thank him for promoting the angle and doing the misdirect. "Oh fans think Mercedes is going to show up, I'm going to call myself The Boss and see how many marks I've worked on Twitter hehe" they love it.

But I'm reasonably confident that Mercedes isn't showing up on January 11th because, if she does, they have promoted her debut appearance in the stupidest, most ass backwards way imaginable.

If you do a mystery partner and it isn't Mercedes, that's a let down.

But if you announce somebody and it still isn't Mercedes, that's okay. You didn't announce her, you announced Toni, you're just presenting what you have promoted.

Imagine if instead of a "HALL OF FAME LEVEL TALENT", AEW maybe should have announced that Christian was going to be at Revolution 2021. It doesn't quite have the same effect but considering fans expected Brock Lesnar and got Christian, it was a disappointment purely by association.

Who even knows what the actual plan was with this whole mystery partner deal? If I'm lead to believe that Mercedes was in but kiboshed the deal after the recent Vince news, I wouldn't be surprised. Now might not be the best time to commit yourself to a long-term deal outside of WWE if you genuinely earnestly want to still work there. Maybe Mercedes will do this NJPW stuff, scratch that whole Joshi itch she has and then go back to the Fed? Doubly, I wouldn't be surprised if NJPW have told AEW that Mercedes Moné's first post-WWE match is their show in February and AEW are not allowed to have her wrestle until after Battle at the Valley. In which case, they needed to announce a wrestler to wrestle the match because Mercedes is off the table in that respect. 

Maybe the original plan was Thunder Rosa's return but they saw all the fans getting worked up about it being Mercedes and decided they needed to quieten that baseless speculation to avoid a disappointing return for their former World Champion? Who knows? But we're all talking about it so, clearly, the mystery has been a relatively effective promotional vehicle.

Fair enough, and even if they did announce Thunder Rosa some fans would still be thinking that the Sasha Banks shoe is going to drop all the way until the bell rings. In some ways fans are their own worst enemy at times.

[Jaysin]

The no dq tag match followed the rules more than a typical Young Bucks match. 

[milamber]

 

[StartChoppin]

I wonder if Mercedes Monet doesn't have any actual contract with AEW and they are relying on her being traded for NJPW in exchange for people like Omega and anyone else that might show up in New Japan. If I were NJPW/Stardom I would want some exclusivity or at least first dibs considering the money (Monet) they're reportedly paying her. I might not want her working a non NJPW/Stardom show before she'd made her in ring debut for me. Also if I was Tony and I had a limited number of dates I'd want her working on PPV.  My Prediction is she's on Dynamite but doesn't work a match at least until after the Valley show.

[Jaysin]

5 hours ago, StartChoppin said:

I wonder if Mercedes Monet doesn't have any actual contract with AEW and they are relying on her being traded for NJPW in exchange for people like Omega and anyone else that might show up in New Japan. If I were NJPW/Stardom I would want some exclusivity or at least first dibs considering the money (Monet) they're reportedly paying her. I might not want her working a non NJPW/Stardom show before she'd made her in ring debut for me. Also if I was Tony and I had a limited number of dates I'd want her working on PPV.  My Prediction is she's on Dynamite but doesn't work a match at least until after the Valley show.

AEW doesn't need Mercedes. They may not have any names as big as Mercedes, but they have women that are far more talented, consistent, and safer workers. Mercedes is hella passionate about pro wrestling and I love that about her, but she botches so much that Sabu probably goes "slow down"